Does Gelatin Help your Fingernails Grow? Is Jello good for Fingernails?

Does Gelatin Help your Fingernails Grow? Is Jello good for Fingernails?

Gelatin can turn a liquid into a solid – think of your Jello dessert after it sets in the refrigerator. So perhaps it makes sense to think that ingesting it or soaking your fingertips in it would strengthen your fingernails and make them more resistant to chipping and cracking.

The logic may be flawed, but millions of people fell for a marketing scheme that connected gelatin with strong nails. And it’s a tribute to that wildly successful advertising campaign that millions of people still believe it today.

In 1890, Charles Knox developed gelatin, a product made from slaughterhouse waste. Gelatin is made from the skin, connective tissue, and bones of cattle and pigs, and so it is full of protein and collagen. Knox sold the public on it by touting its nail enhancing benefits. The animals used to produce gelatine had strong hooves, Knox reasoned, so eating their by-products would give people fingernails just as strong. Consumers fell for it.

But no matter how many people swear by it, there is no scientific proof that gelatin hardens nails. Gelatine may have many other health benefits, but strong nails has never been proven to be one of them. The best thing you can do for your nails is to pick up some lanolin or petroleum jelly and use it to moisturize them.

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